I wrote last week’s post prior to the results of Derby Weekend so there’s a good amount to get caught up with here from this week alone. I also need to give a shout out to Bizalls & Oldmoonfarms who gifted me a very good amount of 2 year olds this past week, so thanks to both of them. Also need to say thanks to Greg Clifton for hooking me up with some silks! As if this past week wasn’t busy enough I went ahead and splurged on credits leading to some indecision with what I should do with my breeding shares.

As usual I’m going to go ahead and start off with the horses I was most looking forward to from last week’s post.

Last Week’s Watch List:

HONORED SOCIETY (CALIFORNIA CHROME x DUNKIRK x MACHIAVELLIAN) – I was pretty excited for this Roan colt after his first performance saw him pick up 8 spots in the stretch to finish 3rd while scoring a 65 speed fig with maiden 50K’s in which he only lost by about 3 lengths. I gave him a little more distance at 6.5 furlongs and a small class cut to 45K’s. However he gave me more of the same finishing 5th by 3 lengths. Given the back to back 3 length losses I’m thinking he might want more distance but not entirely sure. Maybe a class drop and a move back to 6 furlongs is in the cards. Indecision… Indecision…

LET’S PLAY HOUSE (DECLARATION OF WAR x KRIS x SIR IVOR) – Bizalls gifted me this guy and while I greatly appreciate it my only experience with DECLARATION OF WAR’s offspring was pretty bad. (Look up GEAR OF WAR) I won’t say I was surprised but I was extremely happy with LET’S PLAY HOUSE’s performance going 6.5 furlongs with 56K’s and finishing a good 3rd.

UNION GONE WILD (UNION RAGS x WILD AGAIN x A.P. INDY) – This guy is my absolute favorite thus far. He won his first out pretty easily, so I dropped him into an Allowance 75K race and gave him another half a furlong. I was kind of surprised only three other horses entered this race, but UNION GONE WILD would go on to win easy again. I was a little disappointed that the speed fig was only a 73 considering he ran a 74 in the maiden, but I’m hoping the jockey just took it easy on him. Next up he’ll be running in the G3 Bashford Manor.

PERFECT PALACE (PALACE MALICE x GIANT’S CAUSEWAY x ELA-MANA-MOU) – First two runs were a 5 furlong 4 length loss and a 6 furlong 2.5 length loss. Naturally I found the furthest race I could which was 6.5 furlongs for at the Maiden 11K level and he managed to finish 4th by 2 again. I’m a little puzzled with him. I can’t seem to figure out if he wants longer, needs a class drop or wants a switch to turf.

Enter Derby Day

By itself derby day is a fantastic day, but add in the game with the great community that surrounds it and you have yourself a runaway winner. For those that are still wet behind the ears like myself, I highly recommend hitting up the chat room. There’s lots of great veteran knowledge about the game that comes out of there and more real life handicapping tipsters than I can keep up with! But I digress. Bluegrass day as its called around these parts was especially kind to me as I had a total of 7 runners go that day.

First the Two Year Olds:

BUGLE ALOFT (SEEK AGAIN x KITTEN’S JOY x STREET CRY) – I won him in a contest from BTB about a month ago I think. His breeding looked real promising so I signed him up for a 6.5 Furlong with maiden 22K’s and he wouldn’t do much running that day finishing 11th by 10 furlongs and posting a 56 speed fig. Next move may be to dirt at further against less.

AMERICAN ASSASSIN (SMARTY JONES x SUMMER SQUALL x SMART STRIKE) – I know the animations are limited in the 3d viewer but when I watched him run on dirt his first go I got the sense that he was uncomfortable the whole way around as he finished 7th by 6.5 furlongs. I ended up moving him to the turf and cutting him back from 6 furlongs to 5.5 and he ran a solid 2nd place by only half a length.

JUST FOR KAT (NOONMARK x STREET CRY x SADLER’S WELLS) – After two shots with maiden 50K’s (4th & 2nd) I gave him a class drop to maiden 33K’s and kept him at 5 furlongs. He would go on to win by a length as he took down a pretty decent group of horses.

UNION GONE WILD (UNION RAGS x WILD AGAIN x A.P. INDY) – See Above

PROTON POWER (MACLEAN’S MUSIC x TIZNOW x TAPIT) – A gift horse from Bizall he came right in and showed some maiden 16K’s who’s boss winning by half a length. He posted up a 70 speed fig and I imagine the next move is to see where I can fit him in with Allowance company.

3 Year olds and Up

GONNA GET FREE (HARD SPUN x GONE WEST x TIZNOW) – One of my the first I ever bred and for lack of a better word he continues to annoy me and finish out of the money. After never being close on dirt I moved him to turf where he continued to never be close. He did make a little move between 2nd and 3rd call but ultimately didn’t finish well and placed 5th by 6 lengths. Since me and this horse haven’t been seeing eye to eye I sent him to his room (the farm) in hopes that he matures a bit.

LETTER COUNT (MEDAL COUNT x THEATRICAL x SEEKING THE GOLD) – I claimed him two back and moved him to turf routes. I gave him two tries and as I watched the race I literally said out loud “the hell with this” and sent him to the auction after he finished 6th by 12 lengths. Here’s to hoping his new owner Countingmoney has more luck with him than I did.

Statistically Derby/Bluegrass Day were very nice to me as I posted a record of 7-3-1-0 record and earned 122 BPs for the day.

STUDS & DUDS:

Start with the Studs

ESPIRI (IRONICUS x CHARM SPIRIT (IRE) x EXCELLENT ART) – At 21-1 he clearly out ran his odds as he cruised by everyone in the stretch to go on and win by a length. He’s one of the ones I’m looking forward to getting back out there within the next 2 months, possibly in a stakes race.

WILD SAMURAI (WILDCAT RED x DEHERE x FIRST SAMURAI) – Super happy that she was able to break her maiden in her 2nd race. What I enjoyed even more is that she did it in front running fashion wiring the field by a length.

LEMONNY JONES (BIG BROWN x SMARTY JONES x LEMON DROP KID) – After my experiment with her at a mile in allowance company failed miserably, I brought her back to 6.5 Furlongs and she ran a game 2nd place. Really liking what I’m getting out of the 3 year-old filly.

CHACHA NOW Y’ALL (PALACE MALICE x SUMMER SQUALL x STORM BIRD) – She’s got a late running style to her and finally got it going in time to break the maiden.

PURPLER – Since joining my barn she continues to bring in good returns as we are now 4-4 ITM. Even better she got her first victory with me this past weekend.

Duds

GRAYCENTRATED – I thought I was being clever with this 4-year old filly giving her an extra four furlongs in an allowance race…. 6 days later she may still be running down Central Ave.

THE MARVELOUS ONE – Another one I can’t really figure out as it seems like he’s asking for distance but the more distance I give the more he just trots around the track. Thinking about slapping a harness on him and seeing if that works. I’m kidding of course, he’ll get a shot on turf in his next out.

CALLOUS ALICE – Claimed this 4 year old for 17.5K and moved her to turf thinking I’d get more out of her. I was a little too callous in my thought process because she clearly doesn’t care for the turf. Back to the dirt for this one!

New Blood in the Barn:

Outside of what’s been provided to me I went ahead and bred a couple of 2-year old’s and acquired quite a few breeding shares. The first two I bred were:

GRIZZLED WAR VET (TO HONOR AND SERVE x FUSAICHI PEGASUS x SCAT DADDY) – I ran her with maiden 56K’s at 6 furlongs and she struggled a bit finishing 6th by 6 and a quarter.

6 Responses to “The Francua Chronicles”

you have a lot of good advice there. it is a lot to take in all at once. my advice is to make short term goals, like breeding your first winner.then breeding your first allow. winner, first 100,000 earner, etc. things that are attainable. so you keep moving forward and don’t get frustrated. also try to run your non-ky, and ire. breds in local bred racds, it is their best chance. save your credits till you have a better grasp on the game.you can not,buy instant success. play the game as a long term adventure. it is my 10yr anniversary aug. 8th.

Waremblem and I may strongly disagree on Am Pharoah and Arrogate, but i strongly agree with the advice he gave you. It takes a lot of patience, but you can pick up some top line sires at bargain prices. He mentioned War Front as an example, at this exact moment he is going for 692 BPS, a steal. Others that fit this bill are bernardini, gzapper, medaglia d’oro, pioneer of the nile, and Curlin come to mind. I also like union rags, orb, and carpe diem which get real low in BPS costs. War Emblem is also spot-on on “local” racing. That is where you can really amass the BPS. The local races are a lot of fun for me because the fields are so much more balanced, and you feel you have a winning shot in any race..

Finally, splurge and breed you a couple of your “dream” horses. They may not be world champs, but you will always remember them, and give you some great breeding stock down the line. My first “dream” horse was my first G1 and million dollar winner, and that was almost 20 years ago.

Echoing Waremblem insofar as S vs DS vs DDS purchases. Sire selections are iffy. I never heard of 2 and never used the other 4. The DS and DDS are SOLID GOLD. But why? Breeding to mediocre/unproven sires simply waters down the pedigree and virtually eliminates the horse from future breeding consideration because you will lose the best of the 3 sires when DDS is replaced.

I believe you should also consider looking at lower end claiming races for potential broodmares. I spent my entire first year doing that and still do so on occasion. There are always well bred mares that someone simply gave up on.

Overall I believe you are doing great! Much better than I did at your stage of development. But trust me, it will serve you well to save up and get at least a few top quality sires to go with all those glittery DS and DDS.

Couple pieces of advice – Union Gone Wild is going to face a tough time in that G3. The horse is telling you he isn’t ready, when his SP decreases in a small horse field the next move isn’t go into a graded race. It means you made a smart training decision and found a small field. The time to steal graded 2yo fields is over, you’ll be facing 12 or more horses all with good records, some of them stakes winners, several of them who have already run 78 plus.

You’re not making ideal credit purchases. It is expensive and a dart board shot paying a lot for DS and DDS shares. You should be be claiming or buying horses in auctions with good pedigrees then breeding them to foundation type sires so you can develop a broodmare band. Spending credits to scratch breed pedigrees is very expensive, you can do it of course, your cash, but it is in no way ideal. The most important thing you can do when starting up a stable is develop a broodmare band. Start with a goal to get 20 broodmares then work out from there. It’s not a good use of resources to make a Constitution x Nureyev x Giant’s Causeway because you have no idea if Constitution is going to be any good and whether or not this horse will be a bloodline you want to build off. I do like the Tiznow share though.

Here is a 5000 credit breeding plan:

3000 – 5 broodmares to emerging high end sires for foundation bloodlines. This assumes you acquire 6 mares to use. Assumes 500 credits each sire and 100 credits for the breedings. Stallions I would look at are Into Mischief (going to be/is a major sire), or Camelot (runners look awesome he will be upgraded), the sort who have successful runners on the track who are likely to make the stallion. Don’t spend your money on unproven stallions because you have no idea how they will turn out in real life and that will ultimately effect their broodmare value.

1000 – Splurge and get the big name, so 900 for a top end stallion plus 100 for the breeding. I’d go for War Front as you can get him for 800 on some weeks. When you get 1000 BPs I’d get a Galileo or Tapit.

1000 – 10 local tracks sires @100 each. I’d look at the best of FR, NY, FL, CA, JPN. Solid sires, good purses can rack up BPs. Breeding these relatively cheap sires will also help you learn what to breed and give you some insight on what works. These likely won’t ever become broodmares but will earn a lot of BPs to allow you to get those Tapits and Galileos.

The great horses of 1996-1997 are nearing the end. We just lost Giant’s Causeway and Dansili. Galileo and More Than Ready are also 97. One of the best things I have in my barns is all the Storm Cat, AP Indy, Sadler’s Wells mares I bred. I wish I would have gotten more Danzigs. You want to make sure you have mares from horses like Galileo before he is gone.

Thanks for the insights and suggestions. I’m definitely going to take the plan into consideration. I’ve always been a little apprehensive at the auction because I’m afraid I’ll short myself on cash. That being said I’m going to make it a point to get in there and start acquiring broodmares. I don’t really mind the credits thing mainly because I’m having so much fun with the game, but you make a great point about getting more bang for your buck.